{"id":23533,"date":"2019-04-11T20:51:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23533"},"modified":"2019-04-11T20:51:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:51:52","slug":"brocks-banter-master-class-in-out-of-touch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-master-class-in-out-of-touch\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Master class in out-of-touch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the United States\u2019 Presidential Election in 2000,\nwhere Vice President Al Gore faced off against former Texas Governor George W.\nBush for the country\u2019s top job, some people expressed no small measure of\nsurprise when the latter ultimately prevailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida\u2019s electoral nightmare taken out of the equation,\nhow could the cerebral, although slightly aloof, VP lose out to someone who was\nportrayed as either a buffoon, cosseted scion of a political dynasty, or both,\nwith very little to show on his own track record? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some pundits boiled it down to a very simple idea: George\nW. Bush, not Al Gore, was the guy voters wanted to sit down and have a beer\nwith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fair enough, but it might even be fairer to say that the\nfolksy Bush was simply the man they related to more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a democracy, we elect individuals to represent us so,\nnaturally, we tend to gravitate towards leaders who we can relate to, who we\nfeel have some sort of understanding of our present lives, our goals, our\nhopes, our dreams, and leaders we feel will defend our interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all want to be represented by someone who is\n\u201cin-touch\u201d with the world around us who, in political jargon-speak, has their\n\u201cfinger on the pulse\u201d of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By our vote, we can only make informed decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We win some, we lose some, and sometimes our hunches fall\nwildly short of the mark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the fallout from Thursday afternoon\u2019s student\nwalkout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement sent out by the Ontario Government shortly\nafter teens across the country up and left their schools in a form of peaceful\nprotest against a series of changes and funding cuts proposed by the Ministry\nof Education, sent out in the name of Education Minister Lisa Thompson, was a\nmaster class in out-of-touch messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday is a disappointing day for Ontario\u2019s parents and\nstudents,\u201d said the Minister, informing those directly impacted by the\neducation changes how they should feel. \u201cOn a day when we reached out to begin\ngood-faith consultations with Ontario\u2019s teachers, we instead are seeing\nOntario\u2019s teachers\u2019 unions condoning a student walkout at schools across the\nprovince. We know teachers\u2019 unions organized student walkouts under the\nprevious government. I\u2019m concerned we may be seeing the same thing now as\nteachers are not discouraging this stunt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider that word for a moment. It comes up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also consider the admission above that they have no idea\nwhether or not what they claim is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But wait, it gets better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of focusing on political stunts,\u201d she continued,\n\u201cI encourage the unions to instead work cooperatively with us on the real\nchallenges facing Ontario\u2019s education system such as the fact that too many of\nour kids are failing math \u2013 graduating without the skills necessary to\nsuccessfully enter the workforce. Over half of Ontario\u2019s sixth grade students\nare failing to meet an acceptable standard on their math tests. The teachers\u2019\nunions have offered no solutions to the math crisis. Instead of focusing on\nmath \u2013 they are now enabling students to skip classes. And even when students\nare in class, too many teachers are choosing to use students as a captive\naudience for their union\u2019s political agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this, the question must be asked when the Minister\nactually visited a classroom and sat in on a lesson for the last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently it is more politically expedient or, at least,\nmore palatable for the base, to create a bogeyman out of unions, a particular\nhobby horse of this particular group, rather than taking five minutes to talk\nto students about why they were outside their schools with placards last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had the Minister, or whoever drafted this nonsense, taken\nthat sliver out of their busy schedules, they might have received a valuable\neducation of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students I spoke to were not out there pushing a\nunion agenda, they were out there fighting for their future, a future that\nincludes funding for arts programs, the resources they need to navigate their\nspecial education classes, the right to actually receive an education from a\nteacher, rather than an online tutorial, where they can ask questions and\nproblem-solve in real time, and a classroom environment where they can raise\ntheir hands and be noticed, instead of fighting to be heard over the 40-odd\nother students in their classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, from my perspective at least, if I wanted to\nfind out what is actually needed in a classroom, my starting point would be to\nask students and teachers. Admittedly, that thinking might be just a bit too\nfar outside of the box to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For parents concerned about their kids walking out on\nThursday, never fear. The Government is encouraging you to snitch on teachers\nwho, apparently, did not block students from exercising their democratic right\nfor a peaceful protest \u2013 all in the apparent name of \u201csafety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to remind parents that, should they be concerned\nabout their child\u2019s safety because of any union support of the walkout, they\nalways have the option to contact the Ontario College of Teachers, which is the\nregulatory body responsible for teacher misconduct,\u201d the Minister concluded. \u201cI\nalso want to advise all school boards that I expect them to take action to\ndiscipline anyone who abandons their classroom responsibilities. In the private\nsector, people know that if you skip work without justification you don\u2019t get\npaid. And I want everyone in Ontario to know that we are prepared to take\naction to give parents peace of mind that no one will use our children as a\ncaptive audience or a bargaining chip as part of their union\u2019s political\ngames.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, it seems it\u2019s a-okay to put our children and their\nfutures on the frontlines of government cutbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had the Minister taken time to speak with the students on\nThursday, she would have seen that the vast majority of them were out there\nwith a mission, hoping to have their voices and concerns heard by the people\nwho have the means to make a difference. It seems that these issues, at best,\nwent unheard and, at worst, were simply ignored by those who think they know\nbetter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost like asking a child what they want for their\nbirthday and then, once they share their wish list, are dismissed out of hand\nwith a flip, \u201cNah, you don\u2019t really want that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, at the end of the day, many of the teens who walked\nout of class on Thursday will be of voting age in the next three years. Let\u2019s\nsee if their concerns are taken seriously then. <\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir In the United States\u2019 Presidential Election in 2000, where Vice President Al Gore faced off against former Texas Governor George W. Bush for the country\u2019s top job, some people expressed no small measure of surprise when the latter ultimately prevailed. Florida\u2019s electoral nightmare taken out of the equation, how could the cerebral, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-67z","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 15:11:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}